The present invention relates to an appliance for enteral nutrition.
In the medical field, so-called enteral nutrition is known of patients who must necessarily be fed artificially.
In medical practice, to perform such nutrition gastric probes of different types are used, classified by location site and type of use.
Nasogastric probes, e.g., are able to be introduced into a nostril of the nose, through the throat and the oesophagus, until they reach the patient's stomach.
Known probes generally comprise a tubular element made of soft and flexible material, of the silicone or polyurethane type, with variable section and length according to the type of application and the age of the patient.
The distal extremity of the tubular element can be positioned inside the stomach of a patient and is commonly provided with a plurality of holes for dispensing the nutritive substances.
The proximal extremity of the tubular element is provided with a feeding mouth for the nutritive substances, which can be administered both by gravity and by means of positive-displacement pumps.
Enteral nutrition is also known to be performed on artificially ventilated patients, e.g. in the case in which the normal vital functions of a patient are compromised or altered as a result of an acute disease or a traumatic event.
Consequently, it is necessary to probe the pressure at several points along the tube, in order to adequately regulate the assisted ventilation of the patient.
To obviate this need, probes are known for enteral nutrition provided with a balloon made of an inelastic material which is arranged at a section of the tubular element and which is connected to a suitable transducer able to determine the pressure present outside the balloon itself.
These known probes have however a number of drawbacks.
In particular, the known probes allow the detection of the pressure at just one point along the tubular element, thus considerably limiting the quality of patient monitoring and, therefore, the possibility of appropriate interventions to regulate the assisted ventilation.
Such drawback has been overcome through the use of a probe with two inflatable balloons spaced apart the one from the other, able to detect the pressure inside the patient's digestive system at two separate sections of the relative tubular element. These probes of known type, whether provided with one or two inflatable balloons, do have several drawbacks.
These in fact are complicated for medical personnel to use.
More particularly, the use of such probes requires the performance of a high number of phases for the detection of various parameters of interest and, therefore, long performance times.
It follows that the use of the probes of known type proves to be considerably inconvenient from the point of view of the time required for their use and, therefore, also in economic terms, due to the exploitation of health personnel and medical hospital facilities.